This is the primary source of inspiration for my project. The southern-rock/jam band style of this instrumental is the main aspect that I will be trying to implicate into my piece, whilst also taking a small bit of inspiration from the structure. Though being an instrumental, 'Jessica' has a staple hook with a catchy and melodic riff that the song opens and closes with. This recognition at the end of the song ties off the piece nicely and is something that I would like to try to achieve in my track.

This video is an instructional video by the pianist for the Allman Brothers Band about how he wrote and played the majority of the piano parts for the song 'Jessica'. In the video he mentions multiple different styles of piano playing including country and blues, and how he used these influences to create his own unique piano part for the song. Ahead of writing my own similarly styled piano piece for my track, I would like to get comfortable with the feel of the piano as an instrument, and also the different styles in which I can approach the writing process.

18/03/25

Pictured above is the microphone setup I used in order to record the 12 string acoustic parts for my track. I positioned the two microphones so that one was facing directly at the sound-hole, while the other was facing more towards the body. This is so that one of the recorded tracks will give a clear sound while the other track will have a warmer tone to it.

Having recorded all the acoustic 12 string parts over two separate sessions, I then compared all the different takes and used the 'comp-take' feature on Logic Pro in order to compile together and use a mixture of the best takes I recorded. I colour coded the acoustic guitar tracks to pink, put an EQ on both the audio tracks just to get rid of the lower range bass frequencies, and then panned one of the tracks to the left and one to the right. This means that the guitar parts will sound much bigger and more spread out, as to provide for an effective base to build the track up from.

I discovered this YouTube video made by the channel 'MusicTechHelpGuy' in which he explains the use of the 'Track Alternatives' feature in Logic Pro. He demonstrates how to create the alternative tracks and explains how they are useful when editing so that the original comp takes are not lost once they are flattened and merged. This is a technique I am interested to explore and could find useful during my editing process.

01/04/25

After creating the comp-takes, I noticed that some of the cuts between the takes were very rough and obnoxiously noticeable. Logic Pro has a feature where you can create fades and crossfades between audio in order to smoothen the transition in the mix, however in order to access this feature you must flatten and merge the comp-take which subsequently gets rid of each of the individual takes. To combat this, I used the 'Track Alternatives' feature, where you can create a whole separate region to edit your audio in. This was useful because it meant that I could keep the original region (titled 'Original Takes') in order to store all the unedited, individual takes without losing them so that when I was editing in the separate region (titled 'Edit Takes') I had the flexibility to change my mind and go back whilst also being able to add in the fades to make the guitar sound more smooth and professional.

The above song is a song by southern rock band 'Molly Hatchet'. It is an original take on the song 'Dreams' written by Gregg Allman for the Allman Brothers Band. From this song I am drawn to the organ part, as it is used very subtly and complementary to the rest of the instruments. Being one of the first instruments you hear in the song, I believe that the organ part is key to the construction of the grand sound the song creates. The subtle use of the organ in the background and underneath the rest of the instruments is something I would like to incorporate in my piece as it creates a larger, almost anthemic sound.

The next instrument I recorded was an organ part. Seeing as the organ sounds in Logic Pro are really good, I decided I would record the organ part with the midi keyboard. All in a single session, I picked out a preset sound and edited it slightly, applied a channel EQ, and then began recording. I made sure to plant certain notes when carrying the changes as I had learned, and also used different variations in the chords of the song, in order to produce shifts in dynamics and add in areas of tension and release. As I am quite new to the organ as an instrument, I definitely didn't play everything perfectly and for all the mistakes I made I used the piano roll where I could edit each individual note. Though this can be difficult as you risk losing the human feel of the actual playing, I managed to find a good balance where the organ has good movement and feel, whilst also actually having the correct part being played.

In the lead up to writing and recording my own organ part for the track, I came across this video by Deyquan Bowens. In this video he explains that one of the crucial techniques that is unique to organ playing is making sure to keep at least one note sustained as you play the changes. As I understand it, this is in total contrast to how the piano is approached, as piano is commonly used as a percussive instrument as well as a melodic instrument. This allowed me to better picture the difference in the two instruments; piano players typically playing vertically, whilst organ players tend to typically play more horizontally. This is an interesting and helpful tip that I plan to apply to my organ part for my song, as I believe it will provide a relevant and complementary sound.

The progress I have been making with my project so far has been fairly positive. First of all I have been enjoying all aspects and processes of creating the track, and my research so far has been steady but is proving effective as I have learned quite a lot recently and have been pushing myself to apply these things as quickly as possible. I have mainly used YouTube as my primary source for my research as it contains a vast amount of information that covers almost all subjects, however I am constantly listening to different types of music as well where I have been gathering inspiration from little nuances or techniques that I can possibly carry over into my project. My strength so far has definitely been the practical side, as I am constantly trying new practices, whether it be microphone placement or playing different styles on instruments, and applying the different discoveries should they fit the project. However, I am definitely aware that I have been struggling with my time management. Though I have put a lot of effort into achieving the professional sound I want, I have noticed that I have slowly fallen behind the timeframe that I had intended to keep up. This is proved by the fact that we have reached the spring break and I only have two instruments recorded, and have completely neglected the video recording that I had intended to do as well. It is fair to conclude that I have made an effective start to the project and I am being exposed to and learning a multitude of new skills, however I have been oblivious to my time management over the first 3rd, and there needs to be a change of pace.

10/04/25

For the piano, I used similar resources to that of the organ. Of the options I had, I found that recording the piano with the midi keyboard was the most time-efficient way to get a good, professional sounding piano, and also easier to edit in the piano roll. I picked out a Logic Pro piano sound that I liked, put a similar channel EQ on it and prepared to write and record. Dissimilar to the organ part, I found that the piano part needed to be a lot more bouncy and high energy and to achieve this I needed to use a sustain foot switch. This is an electronic pedal that mimics the sustain function of a real piano pedal. Whilst writing the piano part for the track, I discovered that to have sustain like there is on a real piano would be vital for the sound of the piano track and the song altogether.

10/04/25

Ahead of my two recording sessions for the piano part of my track, I decided that I would implement a warmup. As the piano is an instrument that is fairly new to me, it is important for me to get comfortable in order to achieve a high standard of audio in the most time efficient manner. These warmups would consist of 5 to 10 minutes on the piano in the booth, where I would play a couple of songs that I have learned, and then improvise standard chords in the A major scale. This allowed me to not only warm-up my hands and get the feel of the piano, but also meant that I had picture of where all the different chords that I am going to use were and how they connected between each other.

When arranging the 12 string guitar part to fully structure the song, I decided to implement a loop for the jam section. The jam section of the song is going to be made up of multiple different solos by multiple different people, however I don't yet know how many people I will get, or how long their solos are going to be. So what I decided to do was to use the Logic Pro 'loop function', where you can take a recorded track and have it loop itself multiple times. I plan to use this on all the instruments during the jam section so that when it comes to recording the solos, I can very simply extend or shorten the section to where I need it to be.

I discovered this YouTube video from the channel 'Isolated Tracks'. This channel specialises in using AI to split songs into their individual tracks and release them as videos. Although the AI audio is not full proof, and can sound a bit muddy in places, I found this video with the isolated keyboard parts of the song 'Ramblin' Man' rather useful. As the audio has separated the keyboard parts from the rest of the song, which includes both the piano and the organ, you can get a much closer insight to the contrast of the two playing approaches of the two instruments. It is much easier to hear how the organ is used in a slick, melodic manner, whereas the piano is played with a much more percussive and bouncy feel, bringing in a lot of energy which the organ can sit underneath and reinforce. I find this complementary contrast of the two instruments fascinating, and going into my piano recording sessions, I would like to see if I can maybe achieve this contrast and see how it affects the overall sound and style of the track.

This is a YouTube video of a bass cover of the Allman Brothers song 'Midnight Rider' by a channel called 'Bass Tabs By Jason'. In preparation for writing my own bass part for my song, I wanted to get an insight into what makes an effective bassline, and I found that the 'Midnight Rider' bassline is a prime example as it perfectly balances simplicity with groove. In many styles of popular music, the bass is the overlooked instrument as it works closely with the drums and is fundamental to making a song move and connecting it all together. There are a few genres of music that lean heavily into the use of the bass and use it as a primary instrument, however this video showed me that for the specific style I am trying to achieve, the bass should simply remain close to the chord changes and melodies, however I should also try to incorporate some small, tasteful lines to connect the different movements of the song.

Ahead of mixing my bass tracks, I came across this video from the channel 'Collaborate Worship' on how to mix bass guitar. In the video he demonstrates a couple of EQ and compression strategies that can be used on a bass guitar track in order to get it sounding more professional. I found this video to be rather insightful and there are definitely some tips and tricks that I will be sure to use when i mix my bass tracks.

16/04/25

For the bass, I decided to write my own bass line for the song and record it live. To do this, I used a Squier Precision Bass through a Laney Hardcore Max HCM65B amplifier that I had plugged straight in to Logic Pro, whilst also recording with an SM57 microphone. I did this so that I would have two tracks for the bass; a DUI bass track and a Microphone bass track. This will be useful as I can blend the sound of the two tracks to ultimately create a convincing and professional standard bass recording. For the actual bass part, I decided to break up the track into sections so that I could first of all figure out what roots I need to use to stay close to the chords, and then adding in little lines in between, before blending it all together so that the baseline flows smoothly with the rest of the song. For example, the main progression in the song sticks to I-IV-V in A major, where on the bass I would use the major 3rd (C sharp) in order to get to the IV chord (D major), and to get to the V chord (E major) from the IV, I would play chromatically up to the E on the bass, in order to fill in the gaps and make the baseline sound much more convincing rather than simply sticking to the root notes of all the chords.

When mixing the bass tracks, I used a similar method to that of the acoustic guitars. I started off by creating some track alternatives so that all the audio recordings were still available during the editing process, and colour coded all the bass parts to green. I then used the comp-take feature to mix and match the best audio of all the takes I recorded, before flattening and merging all the audio. I then added a compressor to keep the volume steady and an EQ where I took out most of the unnecessary low end frequencies and a little bit of high end as well. I added fades between the audio tracks to allow smooth transitions, eliminating all the rough cuts between and created a loop during the jam section.

23/04/25

25/04/25

For the drums, I just penciled in the arrangement as I found the drum sounds on Logic Pro were quite high quality. Over three separate sessions I put in and arranged the entire drum part for my song. I started by creating the drum tracks and colour coding them red. I used a separate track for each different individual drum or cymbal, as this allowed me to get the best mix of all the best drum sounds on Logic Pro. I then used the piano roll in order to put them in, where I could also change the velocity of different notes/beats in order to give the drums a more human feel to them.

During the second 3rd of the project, I have definitely worked on my time management and managed to be more wary of how I am spending my time when working on the project. My strengths during this period have once again been my practical skills as I have since written and recorded parts for my project on multiple different instruments including piano, organ, bass guitar and drums, that I have all had to approach from a different musical perspective. As a result of this, my project has come on a long way and I am much closer to achieving the intended sound I wanted for the track. My research for this portion of the project has been of a similar pace to the first 3rd, continuing to use YouTube as the primary resource. This is proving effective as I mentioned how YouTube contains a multitude of different types of content that I am finding useful, for example the isolated tracks channel and the bass cover. This is also proved by the project itself and how using the research as I have has led me to achieving the sound I have set out to achieve. The main thing that I am still to work on is my time management, especially with regard to the video recording. This is highlighted by the fact that there is around 2-3 weeks until the deadline, and I have only a couple pieces of footage that I can use. This means that I am going to have to figure out a method of collecting footage rather quickly and find a way to put it all together to achieve the video idea I had. Overall at this stage, I am very happy with the progress I have made so far with the project, and how I have applied lots of different skills to create a piece of work that I am feeling quite proud of. In addition to this, I am also very happy with how I have continuously developed my time management skills and got myself back on track with the whole project. My biggest focus for the latter stages of the project is to keep up the workflow and maintain my standards for the final stretch towards the deadline.

Up to this point in the project, I have been very neglectful of the video footage aspect of the project. I initially said that I would record footage of myself creating the track, however as I have had some time management issues I have found it impossible to accommodate this. Therefor, I have decided that what I will do is capture footage of myself mostly miming each of the instruments. Doing this instead of capturing footage of me recording the actual parts for the track obviously hinders the authenticity of the video in relation to the audio that will go over it, however it still maintains that there is a video accompaniment and I believe that it will bring a different feel to the video. Rather than documented footage, the mime footage allows for more expressive performance and will give off a more light-hearted feel to the video, bringing more of a music video-type of feel rather than a documented collection of footage.

For the lead guitar parts of the song, there is plenty of structure around the beginning and near the end, and most of these written lead riffs are directly inspired by 'Jessica' and the way that they get called back to right at the end. However, as the structure changes and slowly reaches the jam section, the lead guitar at this point is going to be primarily improvised as this is a skill I have been developing throughout the year. In order to achieve a good improvised solo, I will be looking at a handful of different guitar solos in order to get a better grasp of what it is that I would like to achieve with my solo.

To start the recording of the electric guitar parts, I began with the main lead part of the song that is the staple riff throughout. This main riff is a simple, melodic line in A major played primarily on the highest 2 strings, that sits nicely over the top of the chords, before there is a little break where the chords change in order to break up the repeating melody. As this is the part that the whole song ties back to at the end of the jam section for the outro, I also took this time to record a short repeating lick near the end of the jam chords that I can tie in with an extra solo in order to provide an effective transition out of the jam section and into the outro section where the whole song is tied off. To record this, I simply used one of the college guitars in order to add some variety to the sound. I put it straight through the little 15 watt amplifier in the booth, which I plugged straight into the audio box into Logic Pro. The result of this was a nice, sharp and well-rounded tone for the lead line that is recognisable and highly complementary to the style of the piece.

The next part of the guitars that needed recorded were harmony parts for the main riff, and then some improvised solos for the middle 8 break and the breakdown section. For both of these sections I decided that I would have duelling guitars, one panned to the left and one to the right in order to create a guitar conversation. In this recording session, I started by recording all the harmony parts for the main riff which help to give it a much bigger and grander sound which is effective due to its pivotal role in the piece. I achieved this by primarily using the neck pickup and by putting the guitar through my pedal board, into the Line-6 amp and into Logic Pro, and for this specific part I dialled in a softer, warm tone to compliment the main riff and also added a hint of chorus to smoothen the signal. After this I recorded one half of the guitar conversation with the same setup. I changed up the tone a little bit to make it more cutting and higher gain and I also added my compression pedal to the signal just to give the sound that extra boost that it needed for these lead parts. I then recorded 3 improvised solos for the middle sections of the track and panned them all to the left.

In this session I recorded three different lead guitar tracks, all using the same setup. I used my own Les Paul Guitar that I put through my pedal board, into the Line 6 Spider and finally into Logic Pro. To get the different tones I would change the configuration of the pedals and the EQ on the amp to achieve different sounds.

13/05/25

22/05/25

At this point in the project, I was ready to get some of my classmates to come and do a solo. I spent some time in the lead up to deadline, both in class and out of class, approaching both my bandmates and my classmates and asking if they would like to collaborate on my project. During this time, I managed to secure a handful of different solos from my peers and added them into the project, whilst also remembering to video record a plentiful of footage to use in the video.

I found this video by 'Spinlight Studios' in which producer Rhys Zacher goes over how he mixes acoustic guitars. In the lead up to creating a final mix of my project, I figured that I would do some research into doing a full mix of a song. Seeing as my song is very much driven by the acoustic guitars, I figured that this video would be an interesting insight into how to mix them. It was indeed that, as he explains how he uses multiple different EQ's and Compressors, and a variety of different processes including eliminating whistle frequencies, using EQ and high/low pass shelves and filters to create boosts and cuts at different frequencies, and using compression in order to keep the dynamics of the signal consistent, subsequently disallowing the energy to drop off. I liked this video as not only does he explain the technical aspect of the processes, but he also explains his personal thought process when mixing, talking about how he uses his ears as his primary guidance and just in general providing an insight into his mindset while he mixes a track. I found all of the above to be useful and thought provoking before going into my mixing session, and I will make sure to use these techniques where appropriate.

I came across this video by the YouTube channel 'The Band Guide' where video-maker Colin Cross explains the Logic Pro auxiliary channel feature, also known as buses. This is an interesting feature where you can take a track that is set to a certain channel and send the audio to a separate channel before it is sent to the master and is played out loud. He goes on to explain a couple of different ways in which this feature is used, primarily for adding effects onto multiple channels at a time so that you don't have to add all the plugins and effects onto each individual track or channel. This is most commonly used for effects like reverb, as it means instead of having lots of individual reverbs on each track that may all clash with each other, you can send all your tracks to one singular reverb channel that mimics a room or a space. This then gives the listener the impression that all your different instruments were recorded in one singular space, and allows them to complement each other much better, tying the whole mix together. This feature is going to prove very useful for my project, as all my instruments were recorded one at a time and it would use up a lot of time and computer storage space for me to go around adding effects onto each individual track when I could simply set up a few auxiliary tracks to send my audio to and mix things altogether, creating a professional sounding space that ties off my track and creates the professional sound that I was looking for.

After mixing the acoustic guitars, I followed a similar process for mixing the rest of the instruments. Obviously, for some of the instruments such as piano and organ, there was no need to use any auxiliary tracks as I could just put the compression and EQ straight onto the individual channels, however for the bass and the drums I did indeed set up auxiliary mixer channels. For the bass, I used this for putting an EQ and a compressor on both the DUI and the mic audio so that I could mix them together, and for the drums I used this for compression and for a touch of distortion just to make the drums punch through a little bit more clearly. This also helped the drums sound like a singular kit rather than lots of piano rolled drum sample sounds from Logic which majorly contributed to the professional sound of the rhythm section. At this point, I also created a dedicated auxiliary channel for reverb, where I could send all the audio again to create a singular space and a sound that would resemble that of a band all together in a room. I added on a reverb that mimics the sound of a tight, compact recording room to ensure that all the instruments are tied together nicely and are complementing each other rather than battling for space. I decided that in order to make the lead parts really shine through and sit nicely atop the rhythm section, I would create a second separate reverb that I could send only the lead guitar parts to. On the second reverb, I put in a reverb that was a little bit grander but still not overpowering to ensure that the lead parts are very detailed and again, sit nicely on top of the rest of the instruments.

During this session, I began the final mixing stage of my project. At this point, I had gathered all the collaborations that I could get and had arranged them so that they flow effortlessly between each other. It was now time to produce a final mix for my song before creating the video. I after conducting a bit of research, I started with the acoustic guitars. I decided that I would create an auxiliary channel that I could send both the acoustic guitar tracks to, and mix them together. I sent the tracks via bus 1 and title the channel 'Acoustic Mix'. I then took the EQ and compression I had already applied to the individual acoustic tracks, copied it over to the Mix channel and removed them as I no longer needed them. I then used the EQ to sharpen up a lot of the high frequencies that were the driving force behind the sound and made a few cuts at the appropriate frequencies also. I then dialled in the compression so that both of the guitar tracks didn't dip in volume or energy. This compression was also useful as it meant that when I would adjust the volume of the acoustic guitars, it would remain consistent and not be quieter in places saving me a whole lot of time going to different sections of the song and adjusting it accordingly. Again as the driving force behind the track, the acoustic guitars need to be very prominent throughout, and mixing them together was very useful in achieving a purely consistent and grand sound that I needed from them.

Finally, before bouncing out the project and getting ready to finalise the video, I selected the 'Stereo Out' channel and added on the 'Mastering Assistant' plugin. This plugin proved to be an absolute game-changer when it came to finalising my project. This plugin uses uploaded presets in conjunction with AI technology to take a scan of the track and make slight dynamic changes to the whole track and acting in the place of a mastering engineer, leaving the project fully mastered to a high standard. In order to use this, I selected the loudest and most full section of the track, opened the plugin, and selected 'Analyse'. Then after a second or two, the plugin immediately kicked in having chose and instantly applied the changes, and the change was immediately noticeable. I had a quick look through some of the presets that you could select but ultimately just left it as it was. After this, I also had previously come across some of the presets in the channel EQ plugin that were applicable for mastering, so I had a look at some of them and ended up choosing the 'Final Mix - Rock' preset and applying it to the Stereo Out channel as well. Overall these plugins combined allowed for an incredible and efficient master that was the final push my project needed in order to sound up to the professional standard I hoped to achieve.

During this session I finished off my mixing by finalising the all the lead guitar parts for the track. I had already created the reverb channel for all the lead parts, so I started off by sending all the audio to the reverb channel 'Reverb 2' via bus 5. I didn't use many auxiliary tracks for the lead parts, as they are all assigned a single track for each different guitar part, with the exception of the background guitar or 'Adlib Guitar' which I split between 3 differently panned tracks after I recorded them and mixed with an auxiliary track titled 'Adlib Guitar Mix'. For mixing the lead guitar parts, I simply added EQ's which I used to boost the dominant frequencies of each tone and to make cuts at the frequencies that clash with others. I also added compression onto each channel with a fast attack around 10ms and slower release around 100 - 200ms which helps to keep the signal steady and consistent allowing for a lot more control of the volume. On some of the tracks, like the 'Harmony Guitar' and 'Duel Lead Left' (which I recorded in the same session), there was a prominent, high-frequency buzz on the recorded audio which was quite apparent in the mix. To combat this, I added a second EQ onto the channel and made a major cut at around 6k - 8k Hz, specifically using my ear to figure out where the buzz was at its loudest and adding little adjustments, which finally eliminated the problem entirely. For some of the solos done by my classmates, they simply used a Logic Pro amp preset and plugged their guitars in for their tone. Seeing as these presets automatically add in lots of effects onto their channels, I didn't want to mess with them too much, however again there was a little bit of clashing with certain frequencies in the EQ, so I did make some small edits whilst making sure to not change anything detrimental to the tone or sound of the audio.

After mixing my whole track, I knew that there was still lengths to go in order to achieve the professional standard I wanted for my project. One of the processes I could do to achieve this would be to master the final mix. This process is quite long as you need to export the whole track as a .WAV file and then add on EQ and compression among other things in order to give the song its final push into professionalism, and I simply did not have the time to do this. At this point, my lecturer Scott overheard me and showed me an interesting feature that Logic Pro has in which it will create a master automatically for you. This is called the 'Mastering Assistant' and it uses AI technology to scan your whole track and use different toolsets in order to produce a fully mastered version of your track based on programmed presets. I can definitely see myself using this feature as it will save me a lot of time on long processes that I do not have the time for, and will provide as an effective shortcut towards my final deadline.

The final stage I had to complete to finish the project was to create the video. I was very fortunate enough to get some help from my lecturer Scott in order to complete this. During this final session, Scott joined me in the booth whilst I was completing the final mix and master of the track where he brought in his laptop and his external hard drive. As I had no previous experience with video-editing software, Scott was kind enough to offer his own resources and experience in video-editing and completed the video for me. After sharing with him the complete folder of footage I had collected over the past month, and the finished and exported .WAV file of the song itself, he uploaded them onto his laptop and created a session on the video-editing software 'Adobe Premiere Pro'. In this session, he first of all added in the audio of the finished song, and then together we went through the video footage trying to make sure we had enough to cover the whole song. After sifting through all the unorganised footage, we eventually developed a handful of different layers in order to fill the whole duration of the project and ensured that the video and the audio synced up correctly and as closely as possible. After this, Scott was kind enough to take it all home and resume his editing out of college hours, coming in the next day with a completed, edited video for the final stage of my project. This was immensely kind of him, and the end product he created for the project was at an incredibly high standard and effectively tied off the whole project all together.